Dumping any foreign species into a body of water can have drastic consequences, and until people understand this premise we will continue to have these problems. Snakeheads are the cockroaches of the fish world....they can survive nearly anything, including lack of water!

The introduction of the brown trout has had devastating impact on the western fisheries - it was the carrier of Whirling Disease to the US. Even when the intentions might seem "good" to some, it's always risky to forsake the native species for some perceived reason.

Yep, they can walk on land from one river to another or from pond to pond wating up all of your fish. Ugly things they are. Saw an article a few days ago on them on a news service. Must be a hot topic.

I wonder if they will strike a fly while on land, hmmm on land fishing a new dimension to our sport perhaps ?

Juro brings up an interesting point regarding regs with pet stores. When my wife and I go into a pet managerie and handle a cat or dog in a playpen, we're required to sign our names and contact info into a log in case that particular animal is found to be a vector of a certain disease. If so, we can be contacted immediately and take appropriate actions.

When someone purchases a pet (bird or mammal), there's plenty of paperwork filled out at these stores. Tracking is easy. But I'm not certain about purchasing fish, especially exotics. If the same steps are taken to track the purchase of species such as snake heads, perhaps the buyer would think twice before assuming it's OK to just heave them into the nearest body of water. The key is EDUCATION AT THE POINT OF PURCHASE.

If someone is more in tune with the tracking of exotic fish once purchased from a store, please advise. I'm wondering just how well we could track these problems down.

Yes, bait bucket biology does indeed suck. I'm not sure how the state agencies are prepared to deal with this sort of thing. Not well, judging by the speed of MD DNR in eliminating this thing. Probably no fault of their own -- they've got enough on their plates and who could see something like THIS coming?

The state of VT faced the same thing with alewives in a pond that's connected to L. Champlain. They didn't do anything about it b/c their hands were tied by the PETA crowd. In the mean time the alewives are multiplying and spreading. Now Lake Champlain may be screwed. Maybe the lamprey will check their numbers (kidding).

There is an Aquatic Nuisance Species group in the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service that is charged with dealing with these issues and educating people about this. They were at the Outdoor Writers Assoc. Annual meeting last month. I think they're some sharp people -- just too low on staff and cash to be as effective as they ought to be. I suggest you tell your Congressman to throw some cash their way in the next federal budget in hopes that maybe, just maybe, it prevents something like this from happening in your home water.

Here is a question that I was thinking about. Why do they sell or are allowed to sell fish such as these as small exotic fish that they know will grow to large for fish tanks. Most people just throw these fish into local lakes. Thats how some of the lakes in the Seattle area have very big Goldfish in them

I was suprised one time when I was fishing a lake to see goldfish 14" long in it. These were not Koi.

Years ago LOCALS introduced white perch into Moosehead Lake in Maine. Apparently it was too long a ride to ponds or lakes where they otherwise could be found. {It wasn't that far, maybe twenty miles as a guess}. This introduction could be expected to have a devastating effect on the cold water fishery in the lake and the state did make an effort to trap them after they found out about it. Today you don't hear much about it, but the fishery isn't what it was.

This was a case of fishermen who did, or should have, known the impact willfully introduced these fish. How do you stop this sort of thing? If I recall correctly, there were only two individuals involved. This behavior is incomprehensible to me as that area depends heavily on tourism and sportsmen. They were virtually attacking the livilhood of their neighbors.